March 16, 2018Ellen Dostal – BroadwayWorld Playwright Wendy Graf is best known for her uniquely dramatic works such as PLEASE DON’T ASK ABOUT BECKET, ALL AMERICAN GIRL, and NO WORD IN GUYANESE FOR ME. But, in her latest world premiere, UNEMPLOYED ELEPHANTS – A LOVE STORY, she takes a lighter – and more formulaic – approach toRead More

March 16, 2018Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Thomas More was an exceptional man — a lawyer, writer and scholar who rose from the merchant class he was born into to become a chancellor for King Henry VIII. Friends with Europe’s great intellectuals, including Erasmus, who published his work, he is remembered today for his novel Utopia (aRead More

March 16, 2018Jonas Schwartz - TheaterMania Progress treads so slowly it almost feels backwards. Lorraine Hansberry’s award-winning play A Raisin in the Sun premiered almost six decades ago, but American culture still grapples heavily with racism and other prejudices. The Younger family of the play grabs at the American dream, but society keeps moving the brass ringRead More

March 15, 2018Margaret Gray – LA Times The writer and actress Sarah Jones is gorgeous, about 8 feet tall (at least it seems that way) and rail thin, with a wide mane of hair. When she walks onstage at the Geffen Playhouse, where she is performing her one-woman show “Sell/Buy/Date” through April 15, it’s impossible to imagineRead More

March 13, 2018Neal Weaver – Stage Raw Stephanie Alison Walker’s stirring drama is set in Buenos Aires in the 1980s, when Argentina was ruled by a ruthless military junta. Anyone who spoke out against the regime could be taken into custody and “disappeared,” and even those who privately disagreed with the government and its policies were inRead More

March 13, 2018Terry Morgan - Stage Raw One of the nice things about being a theatregoer in Los Angeles is the diversity of theatre one is able to enjoy. On any given weekend, there are shows up at East West Players (which specializes in Asian American work), Ebony Repertory Theatre (which explores the African-American experience) or atRead More

March 10, 2018Neal Weaver – Stage Raw These three one-acts by Sharon Yablon are all set in the bleak Mojave Desert, and they share an equally bleak vision, albeit touched with fantasy and surrealism. Read more… Now running through March 25

Archive for Mayank Keshaviah – Page 2

Bertolt Brecht, in defining his vision of “epic theater,” coined the term Verfremdungseffekt, or “alienation effect,” which implied that in order to be effective, theater should keep an audience from fully losing itself in the story being told. Playwright Ingrid Lausund, also German, seems to have embraced Brecht’s vision, but she and Green Card Theatre perhaps take the concept of alienation further than the master had intended. Read more…

A Korean U.S. Army field nurse trying to track down her missing father while encamped in his hometown during the Korean War seems like fertile ground. But
the tree that emerges from it, nurtured by writer and performer Joy Cha, unfortunately never bears fruit. Read more…

Technology and human relationships combine to warmhearted effect in Michael Golamco’s world premiere. Even his not terribly likeable two characters turn universal, sympathetic, and somewhat heroic by play’s end. Read more…

Mayank Keshaviah – LA Weekly

For those more familiar with ‘World of Warcraft’ than Waiting for Godot, Michael Golamco’s newest play may appeal as it casts its LCD glow on a pair of video game developers and college buddies who have diverged as they’ve become successful. Read more…

The wisdom of the adage “Show, don’t tell” quickly becomes apparent in this dance-theater piece. And symbolic “showing” can be even more evocative than realism, which may explain why the storytelling here leaves the viewer shattered. In a universal tale about shortsighted despotism and evilly wielded power, only the production’s beautiful theatricality comes out the winner. Read more…

Mayank Keshaviah – LA Weekly

Often the more specific something is, the more universal it feels. As such, this dance drama by Navarasa Dance Theatre, about Indian farmworker-turned-freedom fighter Dopdi Mejhen (Aparna Sindhoor), could just as easily have taken place in Rwanda, El Salvador or China. Mejhen, husband Dulna Majhi (Anil Natyaveda) and their fellow adivasis (indigenous tribals) are victims of the Indian military, who orchestrate “encounters” to kill or torture so-called enemies of the state. Interestingly, both groups are played by the same actors/dancers. Read more…

The Changeling by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley, adapted by Dave Barton.

Mayank Keshaviah – LA Weekly

In pre-19th century plays, the language, culture and norms are far enough removed from their modern equivalents that only proper adaptation and direction foster true understanding. With Middleton and Rowley’s Jacobean tragedy, Dave Barton, who handles both, does a serviceable job in terms of comprehensibility, but the effect is at best uneven and at times languorous in terms of dramatic impact. Read more…

Shirle Gottlieb, Gazette Newspapers

If you need proof that the Long Beach Playhouse has revamped its policies, go see The Changeling in its upstairs Studio Theatre. Read more…

History is most powerful when we see the “all” through the small — the panorama of the textbook through the peephole of the personal. Acclaimed pianist Mona Golabek give us just that in sharing the story of her mother, Lisa Jura, a budding piano virtuoso in late 1930s Vienna. Read more…

“It’s not easy to say what this play is about. It’s not that kind of play,” says writer-director Matt Chaffee in the program notes, and he’s quite accurate in his assessment. What the play is about, he goes on to say, is “four friends figuring it out … or not figuring it out. … It’s about entertainment … and fun … and people.” Correct again. Read more…

At a May meeting of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, David C. Nichols was chosen as the Circle’s president for a one-year term. Nichols, who writes for the L.A. Times and other local publications, had previously held that office from 2008 to 2010.

Outgoing president Bob Verini, who has held the office since 2010, will take over as Awards Chair for the LADCC Awards ceremonies to be held next spring. Verini reviews theater and reports on film and television for Variety.

Sharon Perlmutter of TalkinBroadway.com, and five-time co-producer of the LADCC Awards show, will assume the duties of Vice President. Terry Morgan of LAist.com will serve as Secretary. Mayank Keshaviah of the L.A. Weekly will continue in the post of Treasurer. Pauline Adamek of the L.A. Weekly has accepted the newly created position of Web Content Editor.

Background:
The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle was founded in 1969. It is dedicated to excellence in theatrical criticism and the encouragement and improvement of theater in the Greater Los Angeles area.

Further information about the Circle, articles by members and details of the annual LADCC Awards may be accessed on this site.

Members bios and links to their outlets can also be found here.

Communications to the Circle should be directed to general@ladramacriticscircle.com.

Two-time winner Anne Gee Byrd, who won acting honors for both leading performance in All My Sons and featured performance in I Never Sang for My Father.

Prize recipients, nominees, critics, publicists, theater practitioners and aficionadi all mingled in the foyer of A Noise Within’s glamorous theater in Pasadena following the 43rd Annual Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards event, which was held on Monday, March 19, 2012.

Members of the ensemble of Ebony Repertory Company, A Raisin in the Sun. (From L to R) Jason Dirden, Kenya Alexander and Deidrie Henry.

A grand time was had by all who attended the 43rd Annual Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards event. This group of professional theater critics, theLos Angeles Drama Critics Circle (LADCC), annually gives awards for excellence in theater.

The ceremony took place Monday, March 19, 2012 at A Noise Within’s glamorous theater in Pasadena, and was co-produced by LADCC members David C. Nichols and Sharon Perlmutter.

The fun-filled show featured lively banter and comedic performances from hosts Jason Graae (recipient of the 2007 Joel Hirschhorn Award for outstanding achievement in musical theater) and Lesli Margherita (nominee for Kiss Me, Kate).

In addition to handing out the numerous prizes for excellence in theater, the Awards event featured the Los Angeles premiere performance of My Husband, by Paul Rudnick, a short play added to the New York production of Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays. The play was charmingly performed by Wendie Malick (Hot in Cleveland) and Christopher Gorham (Covert Affairs).

Yvette Tucker and Salvatore Vasallo also performed a sizzling excerpt from “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue,” a dance duet from On Your Toes, choreographed by this year’s Hirschhorn Award recipient, Lee Martino.

You can now follow theLos Angeles Drama Critics Circle on twitter via @LADramaCC.